"Our job is often to create hoops and see if the department can jump through those hoops" -
Burt Ligon, attorney for Houston Police Officers Union
Cops with a badge and a criminal record
What does it take for HPD to fire questionable officers?
12:08 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 8, 2007
By Jeremy Rogalski / 11 News Investigates
Professor Mark Kellar is disappointed.
“I think the public should and does expect a higher standard,” he said. 11 News Police officers with criminal records allowed to stay on the job.
Kellar teaches criminal justice, often to police officers, at the University of Houston.
“I don’t think it’s unfair for the public to expect their money’s worth,” Kellar said.
Kellar has another unique vantage point too: He’s a retired peace officer.
So what’s he so concerned about? The results of an 11 News investigation into how some HPD officers manage to hold onto a badge despite breaking the law.
“I’m just appalled at how much HPD puts up with,” he said.
We got our hands on every disciplinary action HPD has taken against one of its own. Those 18,000 records include problems like misconduct, untruthfulness and sleeping on duty.
But there are also 296 officers that the department determined committed actual criminal activity who are still employed as police officers.
Officers like Mark Hill who one evening committed a drunken hit-and-run on the Katy Freeway. The then off-duty officer fled the scene. Yet HPD only gave him a 90-day suspension.
We caught up with him in uniform and about to climb into his cruiser.
11 News: “Is that what an officer of the law should be doing?”
Hill: “I have no comment about that sir, thank you.”
11 News: “Does the public deserve better?”
Hill: “Sir ... I’ve already ... I have no comment about that, thank you very much.”
He then climbed into his car and shut the door.
Then there is Officer Karen Jerger. While off-duty, she held a party at her home in Tomball, where underage kids were drinking alcohol.
Records show it was some party, with one boy “in the front doorway throwing up” and another “passed out on a hallway floor lying in a puddle of vomit.”
On top of all of this? Officer Jerger was waving around a “.22-caliber rifle” to “reinforce the party was over.”
Professor Keller’s reaction?
“What kind of fool is going to pull out a rifle in front of a bunch of drunk kids?” he said. “That’s crazy; that’s nuts.”
But HPD only gave Officer Jerger a 16-day suspension and kept her on the force.
And 11 News also found cops with serious administrative violations who were kept on the force.
For example:
•Officer Kenneth Smallwood, who sexually harassed a female court clerk and, according to HPD records, asked “her how much you need” as in money for sex and also was “grabbing his crotch” saying the female clerk should “bend over so he could perform anal intercourse.” The result: Smallwood was given 30 days off.
•Officer Dimitrios Karavantos, who ran county toll booths without paying not once, not twice, but more than 1,600 times and owed more than $16,000, according to the Toll Authority. The resultant: HPD punishment was 15 days suspension.
11 News approched Officer Karavantos one day while he was off-duty.
11 News: “What were you thinking there?”
Karavantos: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
However, Karavantos did say he’s since been paying off his past due amount.
Ask Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt if he is giving any of the questioned officers too long of a leash, and he says, “No, I don’t think so.”
“People make mistakes, and we give officers an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves,” Chief Hurtt said.
But when we shared some of the cases we found, Chief Hurtt said, ”In some cases would I like to do a lot more, I most certainly would.”
However, Chief Hurtt said he is handcuffed by the powerful Houston Police Officers Union, which has a team of attorneys ready to fight for troubled cops including using an outside arbitrator.
“You can’t prove this case; I’m going to get it overturned,” Attorney Burt Ligon said. “Our job is often to create hoops and see if the department can jump through those hoops”
And if the department can’t make those jumps: “Chief Hurtt takes a whoopin.’” That can leave misbehaving or even lawbreaking cops on the streets.
Other cases we found:
•an officer who faked she was sick when Hurricane Rita was bearing down on Houston.
•an officer who tried to cash in on a Crime Stoppers reward for giving an anonymous tip on the whereabouts of a felony theft suspect.
•a cop with so many disciplinary actions that HPD gave him a “last chance” to shape up.
But five months later the officer had another mishap. The department’s decision? It gave the officer another chance, which it claimed “will allow him once again to be a productive member of the department.”
All of this stuns Professor Kellar.
“My problem is how many strikes do you get before you are out?” he said.
Professor Kellar said if the oath is to protect and serve, “It’s public business how they conduct themselves. I think the pressure should remain on them.”